Consider This: The color stupid

The election of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsy to the presidency of Egypt should have elicited a worldwide shudder of outrage in all peace- and freedom-loving people.

Morsy victory speech 370.
(photo credit:REUTERS)

Literature, it seems, is always foremost as a tool in ideological wars. I think
of Nazi book burnings and the banning of everything, including the Bible, in
Saudi Arabia. I think of my own war with ultra-Orthodox extremists who want to
take my books off the shelves because they don’t promote the haredi self-image
of a holier-than- thou society. And I have to mention The Color Purple author
Alice Walker’s recent decision to ban her own book from being translated into
Hebrew as part of her support for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural Boycott of Israel, which was launched in “peace-loving” Ramallah in
April 2004 and is adamantly opposed to peace or cultural
exchanges.

Walker once famously wrote on her blog: “Jesus, a Palestinian,
is still being crucified,” and told interviewer Jesse Rosenfeld that “[Israeli]
settlers are the [Klu Klux] Klan.” She was also quoted in The Guardian as
saying: “Israel is as frightening to many of us as Germany used to be.” The
latter was part of her “Why I’m joining the Freedom Flotilla to
Gaza.”

She never did join the flotilla. And I never did read her book, in
any language, but I saw the movie. As I recall, it was all about black men
abusing black women, raping their daughters, etc. I’m so happy that this great
feminist has decided to channel the fame she’s earned from her strong message
into supporting a society in which women are routinely beaten, raped and
murdered in honor killings.

Unfortunately, this Pulitzer Prize-winning
author is not alone in her delusions. A surprising number of respected writers
and journalists are feeding similar delusions and misinformation to millions of
people.

What all these hate-promoters seem to have in common is their
blatant selectiveness in ignoring the history and crimes of the terrorists with
whom they loudly align themselves.

Take the election of Muslim
Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsy to the presidency of Egypt, something which
should have elicited a world-wide shudder of outrage in all peace- and
freedom-loving people.

Instead, we got this from David D. Kirkpatrick of
The New York Times: “After 84 years as a secret society struggling in prisons
and shadows of monarchs and dictators, the Brotherhood is now closer than ever
to its stated goal of building an Islamist democracy in Egypt.”

Oh my,
what a heart grabber! I mean, if I didn’t know anything about the Muslim
Brotherhood, I might have thought after reading this that they were founded by
Mother Teresa’s brother. They want a “Muslim democracy”? Could have fooled
me.

Founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928, to promote the implementation of
Shari’a (Islamic law), the Brotherhood developed close ties to the Nazis,
supporting the terrorist activities of Haj Amin el-Husseini in what was then
British Mandate Palestine. Its “charitable activities” included disseminating
Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. After a number of bombings
and assassination attempts, 32 Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested in 1948
by the Egyptian authorities and by then-prime minister Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi,
who made the mistake of releasing them. Soon after, he was assassinated by a
Brotherhood member. But when the Brotherhood tried to kill president Gamal Abdul
Nasser in 1954, it seriously overplayed its hand. The organization was outlawed,
its members imprisoned and punished, withering away where they could do no harm,
behind lock and key.

Anwar Sadat, the peacemaker, who released many
Brotherhood members from Egyptian jails, was murdered in 1979 for visiting
Israel and signing a peace agreement. While the Brotherhood didn’t take credit
for the killing, it was certainly in favor of it. Under Hosni Mubarak, the
Brotherhood spread its influence throughout the country, making use of the
political system to put up candidates for Parliament. In 2000, 15 of its
candidates were elected. What agenda did they adopt? Fighting displays of
un-Islamic cultural diversity, including beauty contests and literature, which
in their view promoted blasphemy and unacceptable sexual
practices.

According to Raymond Ibrahim, writing on the blog of the
Investigative Project on Terrorism, Morsy himself ran a frightening campaign
based on religious extremism and intimidation. A cleric surrounded by
Brotherhood Morsy supporters quoted the Koran saying that all those who didn’t
vote for Morsy were “resisters of the Shari’a of Allah,” and “infidel leaders”
whom true Muslims must “fight” and subjugate.

Morsy himself is credited
with saying he would “achieve the Islamic conquest of Egypt for the second time
and make all Christians convert to Islam or pay the jizya [the infidel
tax].”

A brochure written by the deputy to the supreme guide, Khairat
el-Shater, addressed to all the Brotherhood branches and which carried the logos
of both the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice
Party, called on Muslims to cheat, block votes, and “resort to any method that
can change the vote” to ensure that Morsy would win.

Surprise! He
won.

But this doesn’t worry Kirkpatrick, who wrote of the Brotherhood:
“They are committed to democratic elections and the peaceful rotation of
political power, which usually means moving to the middle.”

Another reporter also conveyed this reaction from that epicenter of liberal
delusion these days, the White House: “The Obama administration, expressing
relief on Sunday that the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate will be Egypt’s next
president, voiced cautious optimism that the choice could keep the country’s
rocky transition to democracy on track.”

As for me, Morsy’s victory sent
my mind racing back in time to 1977. I was a young writer back then and a
wannabe journalist who somehow finagled a press pass from the Government Press
Office in Beit Agron with a letter of authorization from the Intermountain
Jewish News of Denver, Colorado. for which I wrote a weekly “View from
Jerusalem” column.

And so, in November 1977, I found myself in a red
leather coat (which at the time I thought was amazingly cool), walking down
through the barriers to a dazzling press center that had been set up to handle
the world-wide coverage of the Begin-Sadat press conference.

The
following exchange, more or less, is etched in my memory: “President Sadat,” an
Israeli journalist asked, “we have seen the photos of Egyptians rejoicing at
your initiative to make peace with Israel. But if something happens to you,
couldn’t these same crowds just as easily turn against such a peace? And by
then, we’ll have given back all of Sinai. How can we in Israel trust that won’t
happen?” “The people of Egypt,” answered Sadat, “want this peace agreement. I am
expressing the wishes of my people in coming here. It doesn’t matter who the
leader of Egypt will be.”

After the revolution in Tahrir Square sparked
by the freedom of expression afforded by Facebook, Twitter and the Internet in
general, it seemed as though we were all seeing the genuine expression of the
will of the people of Egypt demanding less government bureaucracy, corruption
and oppression and more freedom to pursue a better life for themselves and their
children.

But as in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, this public expression
of private longings for better jobs, education, housing and food has been
hijacked by the pigs of the Muslim Brotherhood. The sane half of the Egyptian
public that voted against Morsy has my sympathy. I mourn with them even as The
New York Times, the Obama administration, Alice Walker and her ilk have joined
hands and are dancing a hora of celebration with the murderous Muslim
Brotherhood. We will all pay the price for their stupidity.

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